Keeping Yourself Organized
Organizing your literature review can be a challenge, but it's important that you find a method that works for you. Fortunately, there are many tools and platforms out there designed to help you! Zotero and Mendeley are two good options, but BGSU Libraries subscribes to and supports RefWorks.
RefWorks is a bibliographic management tool lets you export citations from databases. You can then use RefWorks to store citations and generate a bibliography in your preferred citation style guide. You'll find a lot of great assistance on the RefWorks LibGuide, and I am also available to assist and help answer questions. (See my contact info and make a research appointment with me on the Home Page of this guide.)
- Organizing the ReviewThis webpage from Albany College contains recommendations and videos about how to organize and plan your literature review.
Books on Literature Reviews
The Literature Review by Call Number: LB1047.3 .M33 2016 (Main Library, 1st Floor)ISBN: 9781506336244Publication Date: 2016-06-09The process of literature search and composing a formal literature review can be intimidating. But masters and doctoral candidates in Education and related fields have found academic argumentation to be seamlessly intuitive with the six-step process pioneered by this book.
The Literature Review by Call Number: LB2369 .R525 2012 (Main Library, 1st Floor)ISBN: 9781446201428Publication Date: 2012-07-31This second edition of Diana Ridley's bestselling book provides a step-by-step guide to conducting a literature search and literature review, using cases and examples throughout to demonstrate best practice. Ridley outlines practical strategies for conducting a systematic search of the available literature, reading and note taking and writing up your literature review as part of an undergraduate research project, Masters dissertation or PhD thesis.
Literature Review and Research Design by Call Number: ZA3075 .H37 2020 (Main Library, 8th Floor)ISBN: 9780367250362Publication Date: 2019-12-13This book looks at literature review in the process of research design, and how to develop a research practice that will build skills in reading and writing about research literature--skills that remain valuable in both academic and professional careers. Literature review is approached as a process of engaging with the discourse of scholarly communities that will help graduate researchers refine, define, and express their own scholarly vision and voice.
Making Literature Reviews Work by Call Number: Online ResourceISBN: 9783030900243Publication Date: 2022-08-11This textbook guides the reader on how to undertake high-quality literature reviews, from traditional narrative to protocol-driven reviews. The guidance covers a broad range of purposes, disciplines and research paradigms. Whether the literature review is part of a research project, doctoral study, dissertation or a stand-alone study, the book offers approaches, methods, tools, tips and guidelines to produce more effective literature reviews in an efficient manner.
Tips
Here are some tips for conducting literature reviews:
1. How do you know that you have found the pivotal works on a topic?
- Use a wide range of search tools including local, state, and national book catalogs.
- Use subject-specific article databases to search through scholarly journal literature.
- Don't forget to use Google Scholar. This is especially great for entering the name of a theory for example. Try searching for self-efficacy. You will see that the first result points to Bandura's work. An indicator that this is an important work in the field is that his work has been cited by 11,000 other authors.
- You know that your searches for information are nearing completion when you start seeing references to the same authors or research pieces.
2. How do you track down citations from a reference list at the end of a journal article or book chapter?
- Look carefully at the citation to determine what type of information you are looking for. Is it a book, an article, or a dissertation? This will be a clue as to what type of search tool you need to use to find the source. If the citation is for a book, then you will need to use a catalog. If it is for an article, then you will typically need to use an article database.
- The easiest way to find out if BGSU Libraries has the full-text of an article is to simply enter the article title into SUMMON. Be sure to put quotation marks around the title before hitting the search button. If we do not have the article you are looking for, fill out an Interlibrary Loan form and we will email it to you for free within a few days.
Tips compiled by Dr. Colleen Boff, Head Librarian, Curriculum Resource Center (BGSU)